WASHINGTON - American University head men's basketball coach Jeff Jones started all four of his seniors as a tribute to Senior Day, and the foursome (Demek Adams, Steve Miles, Ric Patiejunas & Glenn Stokes), and the team, responded with a convincing 79-62 victory over the Leopards of Lafayette College. Senior Steve Miles (Alexandria, Va./Hayfield) led all scorers with 25 points, on nine-of-18 shooting. Miles grabbed seven rebounds, dished out five assists and notched two steals. American finishes the regular season 14-13 overall, and 9-5 in the Patriot League. Today's win over Lafayette guarantees the Eagles either a second or third seed in next week's Patriot League Tournament.
The Eagles got off to a bit of a slow start, and found themselves trailing by as many as five points early in the game. However, AU made a run beginning at 15:57, and trailing by a point (11-10). They scored 12 straight points, fueled by five points by Miles, five by Andres Rodriguez (San Juan Puerto Rico/Louisville), and a layup by Matej Cresnik (Velenje, Slovenia/University of Ljubljana). Cresnik finished with five points and seven rebounds, while Rodriguez led everyone in assists with seven to go along with three boards and two steals in 22 minutes.
"We obviously are very happy to come away with a win today," said Jones. "There was a lot of emotion today with the seniors. We did not handle that very well last year, and I am pleased that we did a much better job of handling it this year."
Senior Glenn Stokes (Silver Spring/Albert Einstein) was second in scoring for AU with 13 points, while also delivering four assists. Jernavis Draughn (Potomac, Va./Triangle) continues his offensive roll for the Eagles. He scored 10 points on just seven shots, and grabbed four rebounds in just 15 minutes. Senior Ric Patiejunas (Vilnius, Lithuania/Vilnius College) was equally efficient, hitting on four-of-seven shots, for a total of nine points. Fellow senior Demek Adams made his first start of the year, and contributed three assists and two rebounds in 17 minutes.
In the second half the Eagles pushed the lead to as much as 24 points (75-51) with 4:12 left. The Leopards cut it to 17, but never got any closer. Lafayette's Andrew Pleick scored 20 points while Justin DeBerry, who had come in averaging 16.9 points per game, finished with just two.
American dominated the boards by nine (34-25), and had a better than two-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio (22-9). AU had a 40-12 advantage in the points scored in the paint category, and they also received 27 points from their bench.
Individually, Miles may have wrested the Patriot League scoring title away from DeBerry with his effort over the last two games. He had trailed by 21 points heading into the last two games, but he outscored DeBerry 25-2 in today's game. Miles finishes with 444 points, while DeBerry has 441. For Miles to not win it, either Lehigh's Matt Logie, or Bucknell's Boakai Lalugba would have to score over 40 points in their final games on Sunday.
Today's win leaves the Eagles with a 7-0 record at home versus the Patriot League and 11-1 overall. They next will play in the Patriot League Tournament Men's Quarterfinals. AU will be either the second or third seed, based on the results of tomorrow's Lehigh-Holy Cross game. By virtue of league tiebreaks, a Lehigh win would give the Eagles the third seed. Likewise, a Holy Cross win would guarantee the Eagles a second seed. The game will be March 8, 2003 at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md. Tip-off will be either 5:00 p.m. (second seed) or 7:30 p.m. (third seed).
